Applications for SA's toughest CEO job now open

MyBroadband Journalist

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the monolithic state-owned South African power utility that’s grappling with an unsustainable debt load and chronic operational problems, has advertised for a new chief executive officer two months after Phakamani Hadebe announced he’d vacate the post.

The job is probably one of South Africa’s most challenging -- it entails overseeing a company that supplies about 95% of the nation’s electricity, has more than 47,600 employees and revenue of 190 billion rand ($13.6 billion) yet isn’t selling enough power to cover its costs.

Executive Member

Oh good, someone who knows what to do, tell Eskom we've found their new CEO - backstreetboy has a comprehensive plan for dealing with aging infrastructure, insufficient capacity, huge debt, unions, electricity theft, etc. He also has an uncle bob, apparently.

Well-Known Member

Uncle Gwede will just appoint another nobody just because his name sounds right and he has sufficient amounts of skin pigment. I bet the job is vacant again within a year.

On a serious note, nobody with real credibility will come near the job because of shareholder (govt) and union influence that effectively ties both hands behind the back in terms of taking real operational decisions. ESKOM has to accept the NERSA tariffs, therefore they can only manage costs to try and make the bottom line balance. Having a bloated staff complement being taken care of by govt and union influence, and costly coal supply contracts being taken care of by BBBEE regulations, there is no room to manoeuvre the real cost drivers and therefore the losses will continue.